Hands-on Learning Platform Puts Lawyers in the Driver’s Seat in Adopting and Creating AI Tools to Advance their Practices
With the rapid rise of AI in the legal-services arena, lawyers who have been watching from the sidelines or who worry about being left behind, now have a golden opportunity to gain hands-on experience in making this technology work to their advantage with the Ontario Bar Association’s (OBA) AI Academy. Designed for lawyers, the AI Academy guides users along customized journeys through which they ‘learn-by-doing’ to leverage and develop the AI tools that will best serve their practices’ unique needs and strengths.
"Lawyers are naturally curious about the potential for AI to bring greater efficiency to their practices, but many, me included, haven’t been able to find enough hours in the day to explore the potential,” says OBA President Kathryn Manning. “Because the AI Academy helps you narrow the focus of your learning to the AI tools and applications that will be most valuable to your firm, organization or specialty, you don’t need to invest much time to take away just the practical knowledge you need.”
As part of the OBA’s broader Real Intelligence on AI initiative, the Academy builds on the association’s commitment to demystify AI and shape the lawyer-AI partnership. Developed by OBA Innovator-in-Residence, Colin Lachance, it provides personalized learning pathways and interactive exercises that invite questions and encourage experimentation to help legal professionals embrace AI confidently and create customized tools and compliance guidelines.
“With the OBA’s AI Academy, lawyers can stop simply reading about AI use in legal practice and, instead, dive right in,” says Lachance. “Those who’ve jumped in to try out the AI Academy in its beta phase have been thrilled with being able take charge and become experts in the AI tools that will work well in their practice, and are now much more comfortable in selecting, adopting and even creating those tools.”
Key Features of the OBA’s AI Academy:
- Tailored Learning Journeys: Lawyers begin with a "temperature check" survey on current AI awareness, helping to create a curated learning experience that they can further customize based on their interests and interactions. Users can delve into an array of topics – from prompt engineering and prototype-building to risk management and the regulatory landscape – to forge their own path and find the right intelligence for them.
- Learn to Create : By engaging with a personalized AI assistant – named LawQi – lawyers can play and practice with AI applications, through exercises, quizzes and games, as they learn how to build tools they can leverage in their practice.
- Essential Resources: Lawyers can access a repository of useful materials, with relevant insights from leading academics, tech experts and legal organizations. The course materials and sandbox tools expand weekly – so lawyers will always find some new way to learn on every visit.
As with all of our Real Intelligence on AI offerings, the AI Academy reflects the OBA’s vision of equipping lawyers with innovative tools and resources to tackle evolving legal challenges. It emphasizes the harmonious collaboration between lawyers and AI, ensuring that technology remains a tool in the hands of skilled professionals.
For more information on AI Academy, visit oba.org/AI
About the Ontario Bar Association
Established in 1907, the OBA is the largest voluntary legal association in Ontario representing over 16,000 lawyers, judges, law professors and law students. The OBA provides continuing professional development and advocates for improvements to the law in the interests of the profession and public.